Page 23 of Shadows Lost
I had been young when the blood wars took place, sheltered away, but I did recall my mothers tales…about the lifeless lands and the ravenous monsters. About the blood fae who wielded a great power that seemed to erase life itself.
The birth of my brother Kade had been the only light for my mother who had lost many loved ones during the war. He was one of the last fae to be born before infertility spread through our people like a slow plague.
A plague that Deirdre had been desperate to eradicate…at any cost. Her decision to ally with the humans on Earth had been the beginning of the end for her.
Bile filled my mouth and I swallowed it back, frantically looking towards the treeline as my breathing began to rapidly increase with panic.
I needed to leave.
I could go back, face the blood wraiths, and reclaim my cabin.
Except it was too late. Gripping the earth harder, the memories took over and I released a soft sob, barely audible over the loud pounding of my heart.
***
“Why?” I screamed at the elegantly beautiful fae before me with pain and fury. “How could you do this to me?”
Deirdre. The Queen of Faerie. My friend. My lover. My everything…watched me with cold hatred and disgust in her exquisite turquoise eyes. It was the same look she had given me the last three months while they raped and tortured me on her orders.
“So beautiful and so broken.” She crooned softly watching me cling to the cold sterile table I had woken up on.
Standing half naked with nothing but a blood soaked shirt to cover me, I was vulnerable and weak. The burns around my wrists ached fiercely from the iron chains that had once bound me, and my right wrist was mottled with deep blue bruises. I glanced down at the completely fractured iron cuff. It should have been impossible for any fae to break but someone had, hammering the abhorrent metal until it gave…eventually freeing me.
My bruises were an easy price to pay for the heroic act but who could have done such a thing?
I shook my head, focusing on Deirdre. “What have you done to me?” I whispered.
“This is all your doing, Remi darling.” She purred.
“A coward's answer.” I spat and spied the flickering of the shadows beneath us—my strength was returning. “You left me here, imprisoned in irons to be used for three months while I begged you to end it.” I narrowed my eyes, rage burning my entire being. “You should have killed me.”
She laughed. A beautiful cold sound that used to make my heart stutter. “Yes, you beg so prettily, Remi darling. It was wholly amusing but very much a waste of your energy. You could have at least tried to enjoy yourself.”
My jaw clenched. “Like how you enjoyed watching, De.”
Her eyes flickered over my naked legs and then back to my face. “Yes.” She purred.
Snarling, I donned my armor from the shadow void. Covering myself in its sleek white silver plates. Deirdre sneered at the sight. After all, it had been a gift from her—a lover's gift.
Yet, from the way she was looking at me now, it was hard to believe that she ever held even the smallest ounce of love for me.
“You had my loyalty, my life, and my heart. Why was that not enough for you? Why did you take it this far?”
“Do not speak to me of your loyalty and love!” She hissed, stepping toward me angrily. “For years you defied me. Sparing the shifters and granting their disgusting kind safe passage in my lands. Protecting those giant lizard beasts while they destroyed our peoples homes.” She laughed then. “Let us not forget your little rebellion—did you honestly believe you could have stopped me? The Queen of Faerie, chosen by the goddess herself?”
My chin rose. “I will stop you.”
Her smile glittered dangerously in the light. “Oh Remi darling, it is cute that you still think that.” She arched a silvered brow. “They have all been hunted down and executed, you know. Their bodies hang on the city's gates as we speak and I made sure every single one of them knew their deaths were because of you. Your captains Xi and Riley especially.”
I forced my knees to lock before they buckled under me from crushing grief. “Are there any lines left that you have not yet crossed, De?”
“You should have known, Remi darling. That I will do anything to ensure the survival of our people.”
I shook my head sadly at the beautiful deranged fae before me.“This isn’t about survival anymore. It is an obsession, a madness. I know you want your own child…to have again what you once lost. But this isn’t the way.”
“You know nothing—” She screeched and furious gusts whipped around me, stinging my face like a winter wind. “You don’t know because you never had it! But I did. My sweet perfect baby boy was mine. He was mine and the goddess took him from me.”
“Deirdre…” I took a step towards her, my heart breaking for the pain that swirled in her stunning turquoise eyes.
